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Appeared on: Tuesday, March 12, 2013
AMD Unveils New A-Series APUs and SoCs

AMD today announced the first availability of the AMD Elite A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), codenamed "Richland," which support facial log-in and gesture recognition, improved graphics and compute performance over the previous generation, and enhanced power management capabilities on a single chip.

"The high performance AMD A-Series APU continues to impress with its ability to deliver stunning graphics and immersive experiences with even more battery life. Our engineers have done a superb job of increasing processor performance while decreasing power consumption," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's Client Business Unit. "With the capabilities built into our 2013 AMD Elite A-Series APUs, including new software for gesture control, facial recognition, rich entertainment and more lifelike gaming, we are delivering an ever richer experience to end users and our customers."

The new APU are designed to power notebooks and offer faster performance and improved power management in the same platform architecture as its predecessor, coupled with AMD Radeon HD 8000 Series graphics. The Richland x86 processors deliver between 20 percent and 40 percent more performance than Trinity chips, AMD has said.

The new AMD Elite A-Series APUs will accelerate a suite of software, which will come pre-loaded on select AMD Elite A-Series APU-based notebooks later this year and will be downloadable from www.amd.com next month.

They support new features including the following:

AMD Face Login - Uses facial recognition technology and a webcam to allow for quick log-in to Windows and other browser-based websites that require a log-in, like social networking sites and email services. This feature will only available on upcoming AMD A10 and A8 APUs codenamed "Richland" and upcoming AMD A6 and A4 APUs codenamed "Temash." It will only operate on PCs running Windows 7 or Windows 8 operating system and Internet Explorer version 9 or 10.

AMD Screen Mirror - Wirelessly shares content like photos, videos, HD media streams and webpages from a PC or tablet based on a 2013 AMD A-Series APU with any supported TV or display with a DLNA receiver, or with other PCs. AMD Screen Mirror is designed to enable the transmission and display of your PC screen on other compatible networked "mirror" devices. It will be only available on upcoming AMD A10, A8 and A6 and AMD A6 and A4 APUs. Compatible Digital Media Renderer (DMR) devices are listed on the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) website with the "Play To' Receiver" feature and must also include H.264 and AAC support. Both PC and DMR device must be connected to a network that will permit content streaming. AMD Screen Mirror supports almost all popular image, audio and video file formats as well as applications showing on your PC screen, but will not mirror protected content. It also requires minimum screen resolution of 800x600.

AMD Steady Video is a technology designed to eliminate shakes and jitters during the playback of home video. Users may turn on this technology via the AMD Catalyst Control Center or the VISION Engine Control Center application. It will work with content that can run on Adobe Flash Player 10.2 (and later versions) or on any player which has been programmed to use AMD's decode acceleration (DXVA) engine. AMD Steady Video is not designed to (a) isolate overlays, logos or captions, or (b) improve the playback of letter boxed, premium/commercial, or interlaced content. The feature is only recommended for use with videos that contain unwanted shakes and jitters.

AMD Quick Stream is a technology designed to prioritize video streaming over other activities requiring Internet bandwidth for a smooth, uninterrupted video stream. The technology is available on select PCs and requires Windows 7.

AMD Start Now technology is a BIOS optimized solution designed to deliver better system responsiveness by minimizing the time to wake up the system from sleep mode, boot the system to desktop and connect to a wireless local area network. The technology is available with select AMD APUs when running Windows 7 or Windows 8.

AMD Radeon Dual Graphics requires an AMD "A" series APU plus an AMD Radeon discrete graphics configuration and is available on Windows 7 and/or Windows 8 OS. Linux OS supports manual switching which requires restart of X-Server to engage and/or disengage the discrete graphics processor for dual graphics capabilities. With AMD Radeon Dual Graphics, full enablement of all discrete graphics video and display features may not be supported on all systems (e.g. AMD Eyefinity technology is not supported and OpenGL applications will run on the APU).

AMD's latest power management technologies enable more intelligent, higher compute and graphics core performance to help extend battery life. Building on the idea of AMD AllDay Power, the 2013 AMD Elite A-Series Platform enables up to 7.9 hours of web browsing, 5.7 hours of HD video playback and up to 10 hours of resting battery life on a 55 watt/hour battery.

The new Richland chips include quad-core A10 and A8 quad-core chips and dual-core A6 and A4 chips that operate at speeds between 3.1GHz
and 3.5GHz. The quad-core chips have 4MB of cache, while the dual-core chips have 1MB cache. The chips use 35 watts of power.
While 35 watts chips are considered power hungry for laptops, AMD will announce low-power A-series variants later this year.

First Quarter 2013 AMD Elite A-Series APUs

APU Model

AMD Radeon Brand

TDP

CPU Cores

CPU Clock (Max/Base)

AMD Radeon Cores

GPU Clock (Max/Base)

L2 Cache

Max DDR3

A10-5750M

HD 8650G

35W

4

3.5GHz/ 2.5GHz

384

720MHz/ 533MHz

4MB

DDR3-1866

A8-5550M

HD 8550G

35W

4

3.1GHz/ 2.1GHz

256

720MHz/ 515MHz

4MB

DDR3-1600

A6-5350M

HD 8450G

35W

2

3.5GHz/ 2.9GHz

192

720MHz/ 533MHz

1MB

DDR3-1600

A4-5150M

HD 8350G

35W

2

3.3GHz/ 2.7GHz

128

720MHz/ 514MHz

1MB

DDR3-1600

Performance and traditional notebooks based on these 2013 AMD Elite A-Series APUs are shipping now with availability beginning this
month in select regions.

In related news, AMD today agreed to sell and lease back its campus in Austin, Texas, to raise $164 million in cash and fund its chipmaking business as it diversifies beyond the struggling PC industry into new markets.

AMD has entered into an agreement to sell and lease-back its "Lone Star Campus" located at 7171 Southwest Parkway in Austin, Texas to
7171 Southwest Parkway Holdings, LP, an affiliate entity of real estate investment company Spear Street Capital. Upon closing, net of all fees, the sale is expected to generate approximately $164 million in cash. The proceeds are expected to be reflected in the company’s first quarter 2013 financial statements when reported on Apr. 18, 2013. At closing, AMD will enter into a 12-year lease with an extension option to continue its operations on the campus. The transaction is expected to close on or about Mar. 26, 2013.

AMD sold and leased back its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, in 1998.